Kyiv intelligence officer denies shooting suspect linked to Monaco assassination attempt

What happened: A Ukrainian military intelligence officer, Vladyslav Reut, has retracted an earlier confession to killing Anastasiia Berezovska, the woman suspected of attempting to assassinate a multimillionaire in Monaco; he made the claim at a custody hearing in Kyiv on Thursday and blamed his alleged accomplice Vitalii Zhykovych. Where and when: The statements were given in a Kyiv court during the custody hearing on Thursday. Who announced: Reut spoke in court and prosecutor Dmytro Tkachuk provided case details to reporters. Key outcome: Both men have been charged with premeditated murder and were remanded in custody while the investigation continues.

Reut, a 34-year-old serving officer in Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate GUR, had earlier led investigators to Berezovska’s grave west of Kyiv after apparently confessing to the killing.

At the hearing he changed his account, saying he never shot Berezovska and alleging that 50-year-old Vitalii Zhykovych, formerly with the SBU, fired the fatal shots. Reut said the three had driven in his BMW to pick up Berezovska from a highway to Kyiv because she “needed to be hidden” over an unspecified criminal matter.

According to Reut’s revised statement, Zhykovych produced a modified Makarov pistol, ordered Reut to shoot and then shot Berezovska himself four times on a forest path near the village of Yuriv. Reut said they buried her and later disposed of the weapon in a nearby lake.

Reut explained he initially confessed because Zhykovych threatened his relatives, allegedly saying their safety would be at risk if anything happened to him. Zhykovych’s lawyer, Anatoliy Ivanov, rejected that narrative and described his client as a low-level former SBU officer who did not commit the killing.

The prosecutor said investigators used Berezovska’s phone records and identified cash and cryptocurrency transfers linking her to the two suspects. Berezovska had arrived in Ukraine by bus from Poland two days after the Monaco blast and before she was publicly identified as a suspect.

Both defendants attended separate hearings in custody, hands cuffed and faces masked. The prosecutor told the BBC that multiple versions of motive, including corruption, organised crime and a possible Russian link, are being examined, and one suspect provided information now being verified.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would have additional relevant reports in the coming days. For now, authorities in Kyiv face unanswered questions about the motive for the Monaco explosion that targeted businessman Vadim Yermolayev, who had renounced Ukrainian citizenship and was sanctioned over business in Crimea.